


Vow

by GrapieBee



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Genre: Father Figures, Father-Son Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Sick Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 05:30:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11075025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrapieBee/pseuds/GrapieBee
Summary: Everything was dark and frightening and horribly lonely. He was scared. He was so scared. Where was he? Why did he hurt so much? As he continued to sink, a single thought permeates his mind. Where was Daphnes? Why wasn’t Daphnes here?





	Vow

**Author's Note:**

> Another commission! Prompt talked about the situation being in a slight AU where Daphnes has the ability to switch his forms at will.
> 
> Commissioner also asked that this fic focus on Daphnes taking care of Link after they wash up on Windfall isle during a storm and just after a Gyor attack. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

The wind and rain beat heavily against Daphnes’ face as waves splashed against the back of his legs, nearly knocking him over. He dug his feet further into the sand and grit his teeth, pushing himself onwards. He could not allow himself to falter, not now, not when he was so desperately needed.

He chanced a quick look downwards to the small body in his arms, panic swirling in his gut at what met his eyes.

The normally light green of Link’s tunic was colored dark with what Daphnes knew to be blood. His head rested near the older man’s shoulder, brow furrowed in pain and caked in blood from several deep cuts. His breathing was uneven and ragged, laced with a broken gasp of pain as he was jostled in Daphnes’ arms.

The once King of Hyrule had to rip his attention away from his adoptive son’s expression as another wave pushed him forward, nearly knocking him to his knees. Again, he gritted his teeth and pressed on. Wave after wave crashed into his body, the force behind them growing weaker and weaker as he drew closer to the shore of Windfall Island. He did his best to ignore the pain that was digging its claws into his sides and right hip. The Gyorg that had attacked he and Link had certainly done a number on both of them. With a certain degree of luck, Daphnes was still well off enough to shift from boat to man and pull them both to the shore. He closed his eyes in pain as a wave crashed against his injured side, grunting as he did so.

He had to keep moving. He had to get Link to someone who could help him.

“Hang on Link, hang on just a little longer. I’ll get you the help you need. I promise.”

Though he knew his voice would be surely be lost to the howling of the storm’s wind and rain, he felt Link bury his face further into the fabric of his shirt. The boy groaned in pain, the sound vibrating against Daphnes’ shoulder. It was weak, much weaker than he was comfortable with.

When the sea finally gave way fully to the shore, Daphnes let himself breathe the smallest sigh of relief. One hurdle down, an untold number left to go.

His grip on Link tightened ever so slightly as the terrible winds buffeted him as he walked, step by step, to the buildings of the town. The first house he reached, he wasted no time with pleasantries and pounded until the door was roughly yanked open. Daphnes was met with the bearded face of a very grumpy man.

“I said I was coming, or are you dea-“

The anger on the man’s face dissipated as he took in their appearances and, without another word ushered him inside.

\--------------------------------------------------

Link must have been floating in the sea, or so that’s what it felt like. The ebb and flow of his own thoughts were hard for him to grab onto, to hold in one place. The only thing he was sure of, entirely certain of, was a dull, thudding pain.

The harder he tried to place it, the worse the pain grew. He felt his body twitch involuntarily and it was as if red hot lightening coursed through him.

The pain was everywhere. It was in his lungs, his ribs, behind his eyes, thudding an awful beat in his temples. He groaned softly, the heaviness of his limbs hitting him fully as he tried to raise a hand to his face.

With no power behind it, a much larger, rough hand encircled his own and put it back to his side.

“-nk.”

He did his best to focus, to try to pull himself from the sea of pain he found himself in. He blindly grabbed at the hand, weakly holding onto a much larger finger. He knew this hand. He knew this voice. Why couldn’t he place it?

“-ink.”

Slowly, painfully, he cracked open an eye, unable to bring his vision into focus before an unnatural heaviness closed it on him again.

“-ok Link.”

The voice finally, finally stuck a full cord of recognition in him. Daphnes. His mind, groggy and laden with pain, was still readily able to pull the images of what he’d seen before passing out.

The dark, rolling clouds of a fast approaching storm. Wind and waves and rain battering against his face. Daphnes, as the King of Red Lions, being violently over turned by a Gyorg. That same monster bearing down on him, its horn cutting his front, it teeth sinking into his side.

The feeling of excruciating pain and salt water filling his mouth are the last things he can recall.

He tried to force his eyes open once more, that same heaviness from before making it feel like some sort of monumental task. The large hand over his gives a gentle squeeze, followed shortly again by the low, deep voice.

“Rest Link, it’s ok. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

Link groans and tries, operative word being tries, to squeeze Daphnes’ hand back. But his body is like led and only responds weakly to his commands, curling his fingers just a little bit more around Daphnes’ large finger.

There are so many questions he wants to ask, so many things he wants to make sure of. But, before he can even try to muster up the energy needed to do so, the heaviness that had kept his eyes closed was sinking into his very bones. Before he knew it, he was floating again in a sea of muted pain and was shortly swept away into a heavy sleep.

\------------------------------------

Lenzo rustled around in the cupboards of his kitchen, trying to find his first aid kit as he attempted to piece together the unique set of events unfolding before him.

Yes, it was storming like nothing he’d quite seen before and, yes, he’d been so rudely disturbed from developing the most recent photos he’d taken. When he could no longer ignore the incessant banging at his door and was forced to answer it, having every intention to give the person on the other side a piece of his mind, he was met with the most peculiar sight.

A young boy, who he recognized as none other than Link, lay bleeding and hurt in some stranger’s arms. The older man bore a white beard that might rival his own, broad shoulders, a worry laced brow, and the richly browned skin. He felt a twinge of recognition in the back of his mind; somewhere, somehow, he had seen this man’s face before.

The white of this older man’s shirt was stained red every which way, causing a pit of worry to drop into Lenzo’s gut. There was no way someone as small as Link could lose so much blood and still be living. Whoever this man was, he too must have been deeply injured.

He had balked for only a moment before ushering him inside.

“Sorry for the intrusion.” The white-haired man simply said, bowing his head slightly in thanks.

Before Lenzo has even fully closed the door against the rain and wind, the man is moving items from his table, clearing just enough room to place the small boy’s limp body onto.

“Now, wait just a moment! There’s no need to jostle a man’s belongings, especially after showing up in the middle of the night! Why I-”

The look the white-haired man gives him is some terrible mixture of panic and anger. Lenzo swallows hard, quieting his next words at the look.

“Please, just, help me. He’s been hurt very badly.” Lenzo watched as the fury left the older man’s eyes, leaving behind only the smallest hint of panic.

“Just, wait here a moment. I’ll get my med kit.”

This was how Lenzo had come to find himself, in the middle of the night, rummaging through his belongings for his meager first aid supplies. Eventually coming across an old and nearly empty bottle of healing salve and a single roll of bandages. He gathered up the items and made his way back to the main room, placing them carefully within the older man’s reach. He quickly began to remove the remaining items from the table, not wanting them to get dropped of smashed as the old man began to tend to Link’s wounds.

For his apparent age and giant stature, Lenzo found himself amazed at the quick and gentleness in which he worked. Link’s shirt was carefully removed, the wet fabric having to be all but peeled away from his bruised and broken skin.

Lenzo flinched slightly at the sight of the young boy’s wounds: a terrible and long cut slashed across his chest and deep, solid teeth marks made a crescent moon shape on either side of his torso. They already looked like they might be on their way to infection, the edges of each wound swollen and red.

“What happened to you two?” the words slip quietly from his mouth before he even fully registers what he is asking.

The older man does not look away from his work as he gently cleans and dresses each of Link’s wounds, carefully doling out every ounce of the remaining slave onto the boy’s chest and sides. A long, somewhat awkward silence passes between them as Lenzo waits for his answer.

“Got caught in the storm. Boat was over turned by a Gyorg and we were attacked.”

It’s then that Link groans, the first indication of life from the boy Lenzo had seen. The white-haired man, so big and commanding in size, seemed to soften under the small noise. He watched as this hulking brick of a man spoke gently and slowly, trying his best to let Link know that he was safe.

If he didn’t know better, Lenzo would swear the older man was Link’s own parent.

He dares not speak again until Link has fully lost himself to his pained sleep once more.

“If you don’t mind me asking, but who are you?”

The older man, once again, lets several long, awkward moments pass between them, his attention never turning from Link.

“You can call me Daphnes.”

Something clicks in his head and he knows why he looks so familiar: so many months ago, he’d sold Link a picture, so old and frayed around the edges he’d wondered how it had ever survived the passage of time. The man that kneeled over the boy unconscious form had the most uncanny resemblance to the man in that photo.

Lenzo shook his head a little bit, trying to clear the silly thought from his mind. There was no way they could be the same person. It was just impossible.

“Well, Daphnes, you can call me Lenzo.”

It was only then that the older man turned his attention from Link, bowing his head slightly as he turned to Lenzo.

“Thank you, Lenzo. I do apologize for the intrusion.”

“If it were for anyone other than Link, I might actually be upset. But, I know how he gets himself into messes all the time, so it’s no sweat off my back if he needs to use my house as a make shift infirmary”

Lenzo meant it as a little joke and half expected Daphnes to at least give him a pity chuckle. When he just turned his attention back to Link, Lenzo shuffled his feet, suddenly feeling very awkward.

“I’ll make us some tea then. Do you want a cup?”

Daphnes nodded, attention still fixed on Link.

He busied himself once more, stoking the embers in the hearth back to life, all the while unable to get a single thought out of his head: Daphnes really did look exactly like the man from the photo he had sold Link.

As impossible as it was, Lenzo had an eye for faces and never forgot one he saw.

\-----------------------------------

When Link awakens once more, he comes to realize that he has been laid atop something soft and comfortable. If he thinks back on the swirl of pained memories fresh in his mind, the feeling of wood grain against his fingertips and a flat surface against his back surfaces. Where ever he was now, it hadn’t been where he was when he first woke up.

He takes a deep and steadying breath, opening his eyes. The painful pounding in his temples worsens as he does so, making him furrow his brows and groan in pain.

Before he could focus his eyes, a familiar face is filling his line of vision.

“Link? Link, can you hear me?”

He blinks several times, Daphnes’ features coming into focus as he does so. Were he less exhausted, were he not in so much pain, he would have immediately sat up at the sight that greeted him. His father figure was in a state of dishevelment that he had never seen on him before. His normally meticulously kept hair and beard was tangled and mussed within itself. A gash, deep and painful looking, sat against the dark skin of his cheek. While it no longer seemed to be actively bleeding, a trail of dark and flaking blood was apparent all the way down his jaw and throat. A bruise had already begun to form around his eye and would no doubt blossom into terrible purples and blues in no time.

Link was sure, if he could see more of the older man, he would find similar injuries all over him.

Weakly, Link raised the hand closest to the side of the cot, trying to reach out to Daphnes’ face, to gesture to the cut. Why hadn’t he patched himself up yet?

“It’s alright Link, I’m quite alright.” Daphnes said, taking the boy’s much smaller hand into one of his own.

Link blinked slowly, letting the words sink in. No, no he wasn’t alright. He was hurt. Link could see it right there, plain as day, he was hurt.

With strength he didn’t know he still had in him, he pulled his hand away from Daphnes’ and signed, his movements short and jagged.

‘You’re hurt. Cheek. Bandage.’

“It’s ok Link, I’ll clean myself up once I know you’ll be ok.”

Link shakes his head slowly, regretting the motion immediately. It made his head spin and stomach flip. He took a deep breath, closing his eyes against the nauseousness, groaning in pain once more.

A large, cool palm gently rests itself against his head, brushing his hair from his forehead. Link instinctively turned to the touch, breathing deeply once more.

“Just rest, my boy. Just rest.”

Stubborn to a fault, even when feeling so awful and sick, Link forced his hands up once more.’

‘Cheek. Hurt. Bandage.’

He felt a low chuckle vibrate the hand on his head in response.

“You’re too selfless for your own good, Link. Has anyone ever told you that?”

‘Yes.’

Another soft chuckle.

“Will you let yourself rest if I take care of my wound?”

‘Maybe.’

The hand on his head brushed his hair backwards once more before it was gone.

“Since you insist, Link. I will not be far though, ok?”

Link no longer has the strength to respond to Daphnes’ words. He keeps his eyes closed as the sound of the floor creaks around him. He does his best to listen for anything that might tell him Daphnes is following through with his demands. All his ears catch as he begins to fade to sleep once more are low murmurs and the clinking of glasses.

The last thing he is aware of before he falls into sleep once more is that same, cool palm gently petting the hair on his head and a low, reassuring voice speaking to him.

“It’s ok Link. I’ll be right here when you wake back up.”

\------------------------

As the storm continued to rage through the night and into the early morning, Daphnes yawned as he watched over the small Hero. He’d fallen back asleep shortly after his demands for the once King of Hyrule to bandage himself and had been asleep since.

He sat on the floor next to the cot Lenzo had been kind enough to help set up for Link. He’d since returned to his own bed, not but an hour ago, grumbling about how he couldn’t keep his eyes open another second longer. Truth be told, he couldn’t blame him. The earlier events of the night had slowly begun to catch up with him as soreness and stiffness settled into his muscles and bones. The cut on his cheek throbbed, along with his right-hand side. He was certain that, come morning, there would be a bruise uglier than the one that had begun to form around his eye.

It had only been at Link’s behest that he even bandaged his cheek; he was sure his side would be just fine in a few days’ time. It was nothing the young boy needed to worry himself about.

Daphnes shifted and stretched his shoulders and shook his head, trying to stave off yet another yawn. He leaned himself against the wall, just at the foot of the cot and sighed.

He had to keep his eyes open. He had to stay awake. Who knew when it was that Link might wake up and need his hel-

He found himself on the sea in his Hylian form, fighting against a terrible and angry sea. Link is at his side, the green of his tunic a stark contrast against the dark gray of the storm. The waves crash against the side of his small boat and the wood under his feet groaned with each hit.

He saw disaster before it happened. Link, quick and small as he was, darted across the deck, when a particularly harsh wave violently rocked the boat. It sent him flying up and over the side of the ship. The green of his tunic instantly disappeared under the waves.

In a flash, Daphnes dove in the water after him, his eyes scanning the dark sea for that characteristic green. He spotted it, already so far away.

He pumped his arms around him and dove down, chasing after Link as he sunk deeper and deeper into the sea. He kicked his legs hard and fast against the current around him, fighting as it seemed to hold him back and dragged the small body down further into the depths.

He felt panic clench its cold claws into him as he watched, helpless, as the green disappeared into the darkness of the s-

He awoke with a start, rapidly blinking his eyes as his nightmare clung to the edges of his mind. He is only able to fully shake himself from it when the noise that roused him sounds again. His attention snaps to the head of the cot as Link whines and groans out in pain, his breathing heavy and labored.

He’s at Link’s side once more in a flash, pushing his sweat slick hair away from his forehead. Daphnes doesn’t have to use the back of his hand to know that the boy is unnaturally warm. The blankets are tangled in his legs, no doubt from him kicking them away from his too warm skin. Carefully, Daphnes props Link up just the slightest bit and pulls back an edge of one of the bandages, wincing at the sight that lay under them. In the time since he had cleaned and dressed the wounds, the redness around each little wound from the Gyorg’s teeth had turned angry and hot to the touch. They were on their way to getting dangerously infected.

He grits his teeth as he placed Link back onto the cot, doing his best to quell the cold grip of panic that was trying to take hold of his insides. He did his best to not think about his dream, to not imagine Link being swallowed up by the darkness of the sea, just as his own Kingdom had been so many years before.

With some slowness, he stood up from the floor, a deep, dull pang of pain radiating from his right side. The aches and pains his body had experienced during the attack and the storm had settled deeper into him as he slept, it seemed.

He shook his head, trying to will the pain to subside, as he took a deep breath and made his way to Lenzo’s room.

“Lenzo. Please, wake up.”

The other man grumbled from his bed and turned over.

“Lenzo, please. I need you to watch over Link for a moment.”

“Where are you going?” Lenzo asked, his voice slurred with sleep.

“To get something stronger medicine. He’s broken out into a fever and his wounds look like they’ve become infected.”

Lenzo groaned for a moment before flinging the blankets off his body, sitting up and throwing his legs over the side of the bed, hurriedly rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he stood.

“Alright, alright I’m up. Go on, I’ll watch over him for you.”

“Thank you.” With those short words, Daphnes is out the door and in the storm once more, his clothes getting drenched anew.

He had to help Link. He had to. There was no way he could fathom the thought of him being gone from the world. There would be no way he would ever forgive himself if the young boy died because of him.

He pushed the thought from his mind and, again, did his best to quell his rising panic. No, he would not, could not, put any stock into those thoughts.

Despite the pain in his side and cheek and face, Daphnes ran as fast as his body would carry him, seeking out the potion shop he knew was close by.

\---------------------------------------------------

Link was sinking like a rock. The water around him was hot and heavy and freezing all at once.

It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think.

Everything was dark and frightening and horribly lonely. He was scared. He was so scared. Where was he? Why did he hurt so much?

As he continued to sink, a single thought permeates his mind.

Where was Daphnes? Why wasn’t Daphnes here?

He was scared and he was sinking down into a darkness that was making it harder and harder to hold onto himself.

He just wanted Daphnes here with him.

\---------------------------------------------------------------

As had somehow become his habit during the course of this long, long night, Daphnes found himself banging on some poor stranger’s door.

The small potion shop that lay attached to the house had a sign pointedly hung on its door, reading:

**_Due to Inclement weather, shop is closed until further notice._ **

**_-Management_ **

Given the situation Daphnes found himself in, words such as ‘closed until further notice’ had completely left his vocabulary when strung together in that particular order. So, without hesitation, he stood in the rain, his eye now swollen to a point that it effected his vision, pounding against this door.

“Please, open up! I desperately need medicine!”

When no answer came to his call, that panic he had been trying to quell all evening roared to life fully. Daphnes took a steadying breath as he began slapping his large hand repeatedly on the thick wood of the door.

“Please, please help me!”

He stops immediately when the clicking of a lock sounds from the other side of the door. When it cracks open, he is greeted with the one of the angriest women he has ever seen before.

“Are you dumb? Can you not read?! We. Are. CLOSED.”

Before she can slam the door in her face, Daphnes has wedged his foot between the doorframe and the door. He winces just ever so slightly at the pain this causes him, but it’s nothing that he won’t be able to handle.

“Wh-How dare you!? I told you already, we-“

“Madame, I heard you the first time. But please, I am begging you, help me. My boy, he’s ill. We got caught in the storm and were attacked. Please, he will die if I don’t get him help.”

Daphnes watched as the old woman surveyed him, the wrinkles of her brow creasing further as she thought.

“…fine. I suppose I can help. But I will be charging you double for this service.”

A wave of relief so great washes over Daphnes at her words that he actual manages a smile.

“Of course, that would only be fair.”

The old woman pulls the door away from his aching foot and ushers him inside.

“Now, tell me, what seems to be going on with your son.”

Daphnes does not even bother to correct her as he enters the house.

\----------------------------------------------------------

When Daphnes returns, Lenzo is surprised to find the older man burdened with at least two bags worth of items.

New, fresh bandages, several tonics to fight infection, an incredibly strong fever fighter potion, and a slew of other supplies.

“Did you buy everything they had there?” Lenzo asked as Daphnes pulled item after item from the bags.

“I wasn’t sure what I would need, so I bought a little bit of everything.”

Lenzo grunted in agreement at the logic. Better to have too much and not need something, then to need something and not have it.

“How was he while I was gone?”

Lenzo turned his attention back to the small body on the cot, the thin sheen of sweat on Link’s brow not going unnoticed. He had been at his side only moments before, whipping away at that sweat and doing what he could to keep the boy cool.

“His fever has gotten slightly worse since you left. I’ve been trying to get some water into him, but I’m afraid he might choke if I try to run more than a few drops into his mouth.”

Daphnes nodded and, with a speed Lenzo would not have expected of a man his age, began to work. Taking one of the sterile clothes he had purchased from the potion shop, he kneeled next to Link’s, dipped the cloth into the fever potion. He let it sit there for a moment, soaking up the liquid, before he pulled it from the bottle and held it to Link’s mouth.

“Link, my boy, can you hear me?”

Lenzo watched as Link moaned in pain and turned his head towards the sound of his voice.

“Link, I need to get medicine in your system to help with your fever. Can you open your mouth for me?”

Lenzo watched as Link listened and opened his mouth. As soon as he did, Daphnes gently squeezed the cloth, a small handful of drops falling into the boy’s mouth. With having to be prompted, Link weakly swallowed and opened his mouth again.

“That it Link, nice and slow. Let’s get this medicine in your system.”

Again, Lenzo was struck by the tenderness in which this man spoke to Link. Like a father tending to his sick son, he watched as Daphnes slowly, but surely, fed every last drop of the potion to Link. He repeated the same, careful procedure in feeding him the tonics to help him fight the infection ravaging his wounds.

Lenzo stood there, waiting to be a helpful pair of hands.

\---------------------------------

No doubt in his mind, the last twelve hours had been some of the hardest Daphnes had ever faced.

The shop keeper had warned him that even her best potions for fevers took upwards of twenty-four hours to have a full effect on a patient, with the first twelve being an indication on how well the person was responding to it.

A terrible and visceral fear gripped at his heart as he watched Link fight against his fever for the first six hours. He took no breaks and only removed himself from the boys’ side to change out the water and wash cloth he’d been using to help Link stay cool.

With all his focus on his young charge, he hardly noticed Lenzo’s presence as he flittered in and out of Daphnes’ peripherals. At some point and set a mug of strongly brewed tea and a roll of bread and butter on the table. Daphnes did not realize they were even there until the tea had turned distastefully lukewarm. Still, he ate the food and downed the beverage, his exhausted body crying out in joy at the act of self-care.

He has Lenzo help him change Links bandages, again during the seventh hour, the redness surrounding the wounds somehow even worse than they were earlier. The bandages are almost drenched in sweat when they finally remove them.

When Link woke up during the eighth hour, eyes hardly open and more often rolling in their sockets, Daphnes felt yet another wave of panic nearly overtakes him. The boy’s small hands reach out for him, grasping at air and attempting what Daphnes thinks might be signs.

His hands are made so clumsy and uncoordinated by the fever that he has no way of knowing what Link is trying to ask him.

It’s during the tenth hour that Daphnes feel like his own heart might soon be sinking like a stone in a dark sea. Link’s breathing is so ragged, so labored, so slow, that he finds himself holding his own breath each time Link draws in air. He’s certain that, with each passing moment, surely this would be the last breath Link would ever take. The thought alone freezes his eyes and nearly pulls tears to the corner of his eyes. He pulls Link into his arms, wanting the last sensation the boy ever feels to be that of someone comforting him.

But death does not come for the young Hero.

Link continues to breathe, the rise and fall of his chest never fully stopping. It continues on into the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth hour.

By the fourteenth hour, Link no longer feels like a burning lump of coal in Daphnes’ arms.

By the fifteenth hour, his breathing nearly sounds normal.

By the sixteenth hour, Daphnes finally allows himself to let out a gust of air that he did not realize he’d been holding. The wheezing and rasping had stopped. Link was no longer sweating buckets. The wounds on his chest and side were just the slightest bit less red.

Against the odds, Link had pulled through the hardest part of the night.

He would live.

As he lays Link back into his cot, pushing sweat slick hair from his forehead once more, Daphnes makes himself a promise.

He would never allow something like this to happen to Link again. Not just for the boy’s sake, but for his own. He had always thought the flooding and subsequent loss of his Kingdom had been the greatest tragedy he would ever face.

He knew now though, that his heart could weather any pain, so long as Link was safe.

He vowed he would protect this boy, who had selflessly pulled him from a dark and lonely place. Who had showed him that there was still good in the world, that life was still worth fighting for.

Even if that meant he had to stand between Link and Ganon, to take any final blow that beast of a man might try to dish out, so be it.

He would not let Link be hurt like this. Not ever again.


End file.
